Recent vehicles use numerous sensors for detecting objects in the surroundings of the particular vehicle. The information obtained with the aid of the surroundings sensor system is used, among other things, for controlling a plurality of assistance systems. Depending on the characteristics, such assistance systems may merely assist the vehicle driver in driving the vehicle, or may also independently drive the vehicle. For systems driving in a partially and in particular highly automatic, i.e., autonomous, manner, a particularly reliable ascertainment of the vehicle surroundings is necessary. The surroundings information hereby obtained is then used as the basis for decisions which are sometimes very critical, such as whether a lane change may take place. To allow a particularly reliable ascertainment of this surroundings information, multiple sensors or sensor technologies, for example radar, LIDAR, video, or similar technologies are installed on the vehicle in such a way that a preferably full 360° panoramic view is achieved. When sensors are used, it must be noted that each of the sensor technologies used has its specific advantages and disadvantages. Thus, for example, the LIDAR sensors and radar sensors used in the vehicle as surroundings sensors typically have only a generally horizontal visual range. Due to the lack of a vertical visual range, such sensors are not able to satisfactorily, or adequately, recognize suspended, partially exposed superstructures in the immediate vicinity.
Due to the limited visual field of sensors and sensor systems presently available, there is a problem with reliably recognizing vehicles with protruding and exposed superstructures or loads, for example logging trucks or the like. This is true in particular for superstructures or loads which begin only at a height that is considerably above the typical installation height of these sensors. In principle, therefore, there is a risk that a space behind a truck with a protruding load may be recognized as presumably being safely traversable, although due to the protruding load, traversing this space would be assessed as not safely traversable.